


Shining Tears

by DarkPastels



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Gen, Multi, Original Character(s), Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22393852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkPastels/pseuds/DarkPastels
Summary: History according to the gods of Olympus paints the fairer sex of humanity unfairly. In the beginning, the first one set the stage for all who came after. Was crafted by the gods, perfect in every way. Did the gods have the final laugh after her fall? Did they realize that she remembers the Titan war? Remember the horrible acts on her kind? The sacrifice offered on her behalf? How Zeus's foe wasn't Kronos but, a woman?My version of the Pandora story
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	1. Prologue

In the beginning, actually, the details of who came first or who was first are immaterial. Myself, Gaia, and Chronos often hovered around each other. There were others but, they aren't important to this conversation.

Where I was content watching atoms bond and microorganisms swallowing molecules. The other two weren't. I left them be, for what you'd call Billions of Years.

After a while, I paid them a visit.

I hadn’t the foggiest to expect when I visited the plot of matter Gaia called ‘land’. Chronos thought it funny that I took the visit at my own pace despite my mood. I was struck by how far her creativity or boredom took her. Chronos pointed out to me the Titans, the Cyclops, and the Hecatoncheires and their 'sire', Ouranos. Her children as she calls them. The word children came to define the many creations that crawled across my path.

Beyond the microbes and plants I found on my visit, I encountered a peculiar creature. They ran about in groups and made themselves a spectacle wherever I found them. When I asked Gaia about them, her reply was, well, she had no answer for it.   
This was Gaia at her finest!   
Most of her children took on the task of naming the living things. When I asked them about the peculiar creatures, insignificant was the feeling inclined to me.

But not to Kronos, the youngest I was told.

He felt a strong fondness for them. A 'friendship', a term I find unparalleled! His word for them was ‘Andropos’. He felt particularly close to a father and son pair, named Chrysos and Electrum. Close enough that they considered Kronos kin, so I’ve heard. After Uranos was separated from his bits and Kronos took charge, these lesser beings enjoyed the affections and protection of their greatest friend and benefactor, becoming the source of ire and jealousy of Kronos’ siblings. In hindsight, Kronos’ familial negligence proved the fatal blow to his “friends”.

When dawn broke, Astraea, daughter of Astraeus, woke Electrum to show him a horrific sight. Electrum found his father Chrysos and others of his generation to have not awoken. The perpetrator of the act, Hypnos, son of Nyx, admits afflicting a horrible curse upon them; Sleep. Other victims of the curse were the females of their kind, which included Electrum’s mate. There were cries of pain that echoed far. In a twist, Electrum's child, a daughter, was spared by Hypnos. Electrum would the first to bear witness to the end of an era, the end of a friendship, and a war. After flatly refusing to kneel and worship the son of Kronos, Zeus, and his allies. Electrum and his clan were sent to the underworld. There, He and others of his kind served under the rule of another son of Kronos, Aidoneus. Under the crust of the living world, the last of this group of Andropos would endure another kind of death: forgetfulness. 


	2. Morning Entry

Waking this morning, I read my dream scroll. 

Like last week, last night I dreamt that I was with the young nymph, Stilbe. We were playing a game of chase in the woods. Ever so close was I to win by just tapping her shoulder. This was before a flash of light and a spark of fire disrupted our play. Turning around, I saw a tall, angry figure approaching us. He roared a command as I felt Stilbe grabbing my hand. She pulled me close as we ran through the woods, rushing towards a pavilion in the garden.

I cried in fear as my friend held me close. She called for help as I watched the stranger march closer. He held up a spear from his side. Holding it high, ready to throw before the Shimmering one appeared. Her lack of a name remains a challenge for me.

Aiming her torch of fire at him, she dodged his attack. Speaking to him in a calm roar while Stilbe and I hid back. I looked past her gown, watching the back of the stranger as he left.

I felt a small relief. 

Within moments, he turned around. Throwing his shining spear towards me, it's light blinding me before I woke. Vaguely recalling last night to have willed myself to write, I recorded, despite my trembling hand and body shakes, how my chest felt ready to burst; a cracking stab and my ears ringing. Reading through what I had written, I felt accomplished this morning. Self-praising my reading and deciphering abilities despite it all.

Staring at my scribbling words, I realized that I’ve been having these dreams since losing my milk teeth. I lament in reminding myself that unlike the living above, sleep for my kind is a brief departure from the realm of remembering.

Later, a clansman stopped me on the way to see father for breakfast. Sharing with me the sad news of a loss in our clan to the dreadful sleep. It pains me to witness my clan shrink by ten as I wrote the dead name in my wax tablet. If only names were enough to bring the loss back.

During my meal with my father, I mentioned the news to him, but he said nothing back. He finally spoke after finishing his meal. Telling me that I would need to retrieve ink from King Aidoneus as the one who passed made ink for me. Following father to the Palace of the Underworld, from afar, I heard the sounds of hammers and shovels breaking into the ground. I also hear the songs of my clan, sung without the restraint of volume or humility. 

Their words of unrelenting pride and determination carried to me on the winds, I gripped my wax tablet with gladness. I remember as a child, Father falling to his knees to King Aidoneus; begging for him to teach me to write. Now years later, I write everything from the songs to letters and notes for the King and my father. I counted myself to have written well over thousands of words, but, of that thousand words, none have been the question:

How did we come to be here?

~έ 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> έ is the letter E in greek


	3. The request

Electrum stepped towards the entrance of the Palace of Aidoneus. Meeting him there was the King's dog, Cerberus, who led him further in. Passing through a short hallway, the dog led the man into a large room, in it, stood the King of the Underworld, Aidoneus. Electrum learned to appreciate the brother of his enemy, they like night and day, very different persons. He treated the clan well, gave them occupations and purposeful tasks not before giving them a home and a layout of the land. Years of silence grew to years of cooperation on Electrums part. Honesty served Aidoneus well in the passing century, growing to respect Electrum and his men as they made architectural progress possible for his new realm. And from this partnership, the god learned a sense of understanding through imprisonment. Never once had Aidoneus asked about the mans freindship with Kronos. Every chance he could ask, he would stop himself. Thinking that asking for an explanation would not change what has happened.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, Aidoneus reached to pour a cup. Nudged by his dog for attention, Aidoneus gave a firm rub to his doggy head by his master, and a treat afterward. Aidoneus turned to offer the cup to his guest. 

“Electrum, thank you for coming.” he greeted him.

Electrum nodded back. Taking a drink from his cup before sitting down. Looking to see the king sit across, he asked.

“You've treated me well, I see no need to be uncouth to you. Is this a personal visit?”

Aidoneus shook his head, “Not entirely because it's not entirely me who asks for you-” Gesturing his guest's attention towards the doorway. 

The man ahead, watching a tall, shadowy figure appear from the shadows, 

“No need to be so formal, brother of mine. "The incomer spoke with a chuckle. The familiar face earned a furious grimace from Electrum. 

“Zeus.” He hissed to the incoming god.

Walking closer, Zeus stood proudly. Hands on his hips, brimming with ego and pep, the thunder god scanned the seated man. Thinking for a moment as what to say,

“Electrum...you look, well.” Ignoring his irksome expression, he still smiled. “I hope that my brother is not working you too hard?” Zeus jokes.

Throwing the cup to the god, Electrum stood from his seat. “Out with your demands, Zeus, if it weren’t for your brother I’d never come”

Zeus stepped back from the throw of the cup. Cerberus sat up to run from his bed, fetching the thrown cup to give to his master. 

“Touchy-touchy, have you lost all your manners over the century?”Zeus critiques. 

Kicking his brother's feet, Aidoneus asserts “Zeus, be polite.”

“Fine. Fine.” Rolling his eyes as Zeus maintains the need to be cordial. 

Electrum stands with his arms crossed, and impatient as he watches the god wander around the room.

“We’ve not been on the best of terms, Electrum, I know this.” Zeus admits, “But, it's been so long and I think you'd be able to improve things for your group by doing a little trade. If you help me, I’ll help you in some way.”Playing with Aidoneus’ scale ,stacking coins on the plates to prove his point. Zeus turns to wait for the mans answer.

Sitting down, Electrum asks, “And what do you expect me to offer in trade?”

“You knowledge and cooperation, specifically, where is the Jar?”Zeus asks flatly.

Aidoneus choked on his drink, looking to check his quest for any more volatile reactions. Rather, Electrum just stares quietly, “The Jar?” He parrots. 

Gesturing to the man in emphasis “Yes. The jar Kronos had gotten from Ouranos, who got it as a wedding gift from Astraeus who got it from Erebus? Sound familiar?” Zeus explains. 

Chuckling, Electrum tilts his head to Zeus’ request, “And how would I know of this monumental jar?”

“Didn’t Astraea tell you?” Zeus asked. 

The conversation made the King of the Underworld laugh, holding his chin he asked, “What is this special jar,Zeus?”

Stepping away, Zeus sat on the edge of his brother's work table, turning to the two men, “My nurse, Ida, said that the jar held all the ailments of the universe. The last remains of chaos, so to speak. So something very dangerous if in the wrong hands. We have enemies and I just want to find it and keep it safe.” the god explained, 

“And why would I know of such a jar, Zeus? Answer that.” Electrum pressed his question further. 

Turning his attention to the annoying man, Zeus snapped, “Because Astraea admitted that she was given it but wouldn’t tell me where Kronos had stashed it! You were her bodyguard, I would think you’d know where it was.”

Electrum shook his head. Laughing at the god. Thinking to himself, 

_Keep it safe? Or keep it for your own?_

“I see.” He mumbles.

Smiling in excitement, Zeus moved closer to the man, “So you know how to help find it?” he asked. 

Electrum sat down, resting his ankle on his knee. 

“So much for optimism, Zeus. I am not unaware of what you’re really doing .”Electrum growls at Zeus, “Even if I knew where such a jar was, it's not worth my lifespan to watch it end it under your service.” 

Zeus gaffs in shock, appearing anxious. 

“I beg your pardon?”The god stammered. 

Standing from his seat, Electrum “Zeus,you have no interest in helping me or my clan towards freedom. I haven’t forgotten or forgiven for what you think is forgivable,excusable, and redeemable. I will take my leave.”Walking past Zeus to leave. 

“You are either the stupidest man whoever lived, or the most stubborn, Electrum. Are you really so willing to toss this chance away? Hardly even giving it a day to think it over?” Zeus followed the man, trying to get him to reconsider. 

“Zeus, you have my answer, now leave me be.”Electrum turned to look over his shoulder to the god. 

Aidoneus stands, gripping his brother’s shoulder to keep him close. 

Zeus tenses as his fury grows with a stomp, “Tell me how many of you are left? You will be the reason that you will die out, Electrum!”

Shrugging, the man answers. “Sooner fade away with dignity than slavery in all its forms. Good day, sir.”He steps out of the room. 

Pushing his brother away, Zeus throws a bolt out the window. Yelling and stomping as he rages around the room before sitting down. Trying to calm himself and not set Aidoneus’ home on fire.

“Unbelievable, Aidoneus! Un-fucking-believable! It won’t be me that light the final pyre for his race. Good riddance, then.”Zeus mutters under his breath.

Aidoneus sighed, “Zeus, you were the foolish one in this. Thinking Electrum would take your offer easily.”Sitting down across from his brother. 

Throwing his head back, Zeus let out a defeated groan, “I need to find that jar, Aidoneus, I’m catching a load of flack for the flood.”

“Flood?” Aidoneus asked. “You destroyed the bronze men then?”

Zeus threw his head back, covering his eyes as he nodded to his brother.“They were worse than Electrum and his men and when the Titans heard of how I did it, none of it went well. Then Hera didn’t like that I took away Ares' friends.” He explained. 

“She told me that you commissioned Prometheus to create a new batch of Andropos (man). How's that going?”Aidoneus remembered, taking a seat after refilling his cup. 

“Erm. Well, how does one go about punishing an old ally?”Zeus softly asked.

"Which one, Zeus?"his brother asked,

"Prometheus."Zeus flatly answered.

The king of the underworld turned speechless. Eyes wide from the words ‘Prometheus’ and ‘punishing’ used in the same line of thought. Zeus was affronted by the thriarchy’s best general and ally! Looking to his sibling, Aidoneus needed answers.

“What has he done that you feel is punishable?!” He barked to Zeus, gripping the chair as he formed crystals. 

Zeus stood up, exhausted from his bout of fury as he explained,“He stole fire from Hestia and gave it to the new mortals. He did it so candidly that there is no fear in him doing it. I’ve become a laughing stock, Aidoneus! I laid down everything for the old ones and this is the thanks get?” Zeus seethed back.

Sitting back down, Aidoneus looked to Zeus with sternness, “You’re not King yet-”

Interrupting Aidoneus with a loud groan, Zeus bellowed back“Ugh! Don’t even get me started on that-that...whatever Ananke is, she-they had been writing up the agreement for years. We drew straws and called it even, what is there to agree to?”

Crossing his arms, rubbing off the formation of ting crystals on his skin,“Because we have to consider our relatives too. Besides, what are you hoping this jar will do?”Aidoneus asks

“This jar has been used to keep our relatives at bay.” Zeus hovers over his brother, affirming the importance of the quest. “Pardon me that I’m not the least bit convinced that writing by Ananke and good faith will keep our relatives at bay” 

The arched eyebrow on his brother's face offended him as as he was pushed away,

Standing up, “So basically, you want to imitate our fathers rule by using this object as a threat? No wonder Electrum saw through your bargain.”Aidoneus laughed as he moved to his work table. Shifting through the piles of reports from Electrum’s workers. 

“Not my fault that Electrum chose to be the most incorrigible and offensive creature Gaia ever produced. He forgets that I spared his clan by sending them here!”

Turning around, Aidoneus glared points to his brother as he growled “Astraea-”He emphasized, “-paid for them to be here with her Ichor and as far as Prometheus goes, advice to you is avoid violence against the titans.”

"Don't tell me you've gotten soft, Aidoneus?"Zeus laughed.

Aidoneus shook his head, "I didn't like going to war, Zeus, I might have hated Kronos, but, I think you are forgetting that these titans are our family, we aren't acting like one through violence."

Standing up, Zeus sighed as he turned to leave, “Well, I guess I’ll go back to Thessaly then. Hera and I are still trying to get our palace planned out and she wants my input on the gardens. Like I care?"he shrugged to his brother.

Aidoneus rolled his eyes, “Hera would enjoy them as a space for her own uses.”He remarked, 

“Maybe. I’ll talk to you later, brother.”Zeus turned to wave before vanishing. 

Aidoneus returned to his scrolls, sighing from relief. Looking up, he saw in the reflection of his cup a small figure against the edge of the doorway, peeking in periodically before vanishing. Moving across the room, Aidoneus checked the hall hoping to catch them. Nothing. Nowhere. Scratching his head, the incident had him wondering if who he saw was Electrum's girl. Talking to himself going back,

“...I hope Electrum took her home before he left. There is no telling how Zeus would act seeing her again, if or not _she_ even remembers him. I shutter to think for her to survive a second lightening bolt?"


	4. Which is preferable?

✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢✥✢

While father was inside, I’d spent a short while tending to the grounds of the Palace. Clearing brush and sweeping the dust and dirt from the patio and the steps. I then saw father stomping out in a furious hurry. I called him but he didn’t look back. 

Stepping inside, I kept quiet as I picked up the voices from the main room. Recognizing Aidoneus’s voice immediately but he was with someone else, and _his_ voice seemed vaguely familiar. Familiarity is not enough to conjure a name for me. In their conversation, Aidoneus and his guest mention the names of Prometheus and Astraea, along with some chilling details. Prometheus was going to be punished for a theft and that Astraea had done something so noteworthy, that Aidoneus insisted its importance. The noteworthy act was not mentioned either. The most curious to me was the mention of a jar, and father refusing a bargain involving it. The conversation briefly ended before I hid away, fearful that the guest would see me peeping. I snuck back to the doorway to investigate after not seeing anyone pass by, inside I saw only Aidoneus reading his scrolls. 

When he looked over his shoulder, I felt certain he saw me. Wanting to avoid any questions, I ran out and fast home.

After getting home, I realized my foolish error. In my rush and rash hurry to leave the palace, I had neglected to get ink or ask about my father. I made myself a quick pot of ink from fat, ash, and some wine just to write this. 

Father had not come back when I made my own supper. I would suffer alone as I forced myself. I did so begrudgingly, knowing somehow or other my father would know that I didn’t eat.

Washing up, I thought about the prickle of salt, the sweet and sour of the warm broth and softness of the vegetables. I found myself laughing at my own recordings.

Since I was young, Father had encouraged me to describe many sensations. He started by ask me often if I was happy, sad, irritable or angry while I was hot or cold. I didn't think it too serious until just now. Understanding that he’d been tracking me and the signs. Losing the ability to taste and smell were the first signs of “The forgetfulness”. I saw this with many of our clansmen. Watching them fade away after years until they don’t wake from sleep.

Father had been finding ways to retain within me the senses that ‘means to be us.’

Since I learned to write, Father pushed me to record my descriptions. He told me under the confidence that ‘if I write them down, I would not forget; anything written will not leave you.’. That was the hope.

I do not know if it has helped, but I am too fearful to stop writing. I hadn’t forgotten some things, like pain and humor. My memory of the taste of some things and smell of others have been fading. However, what I dream of tasting or smelling or feeling then, I do indeed remember them strongly when I am awake. 

Could there be a connection? Are my dreams a capsule of my memories? I am, as far as I know, the only person in my clan who dreams. I have never heard of anyone, not even father dreaming. 

I can't say that my dreams are good, but, between the dreaming and forgetting, which is preferable? 

~έ


	5. A damned nuisance

So Zeus is still looking for the jar? At least his madness keeps me entertained to a degree. 

Where was it last? Oh yes! Astraea had it. Surely then Electrum’s little one might have...well. Emphasis on ‘might’. Since Electrum and his clan were sent to the underworld, Hypnos keeps me informed about how things are going down there. Over the years, I have become impressed by Electrum's awareness. Witnessing his clans dwindling numbers and chronicling the effects that the realm has on his kind. Because of this, in the last century he has tried to shield his young one from it, or at least attempt to. In the last year, his group took a heavy hit as far as numbers.

Because Zeus, the ungrateful, wasteful prat, destroyed a forest of ash nymphs and mined bronze to make a new race of andropos (humans). Who created so much havoc that he ordered a flood to take them out and a half-assed attempt at that. The nymphs destroyed from all of this, were friends to many of Electrum's group. More than doubling the rate of loss. If only I could reap the benefits of _their_ degradation, but, sadly no.

Such a waste.

In the meantime, a new race of men is being produced by Prometheus, another grandson of Gaia. Ironically, Zeus wants to see him punished for reasons only he seems to be concerned about. Despite his own brothers warning against it, You’d think he’d remember how things ended last time he had such a taste for Ichor.

Speaking of remembering how things ended,

Hypnos has told me of what the little one remembers. Rather, what he calls her dreams. The topics of these nightly visions tend to cling to her very early memories. Some surround her being with Astraea,her mother and father, and a few other odd incidents. The most frequent and violent, is the memory of Zeus and the near attempt at her life. According to Hypnos, she wakes in tremors and incredible unease thereafter those dreams.

Peculiarly, she does not remember names. Furthermore, because of her dreams, the effects of forgetfulness appear very differently on her. 

Hypnos didn’t understand why. I told him that likely it is because Zeus and so many others hadn’t forgotten her. Beyond that, her spark of existence willed itself to remain. Her grip on her life unwilling to go. Life, being what Gaia’s happy little accidents are what I call an incredibly annoying and damned nuisance. 

It does make for an interesting twist. 


	6. Ananke

Electrum felt beyond angry. He felt furious. Enraged at the gall of Zeus to pretend that all is forgiven and forgotten. He would be damned. Damned to let Zeus or anyone else to forget the crimes against his kind. After leaving the Palace of the Underworld, the man marched his way through the icy marshes, thickets, and tall grasses of the underworld. Stopping at its beaches where the vast oceans of the universe erode year after year. Staring out into the vastness, his cloak flutters against the strong winds, only barely keeping the cold away. Sitting down on a large piece of driftwood, Electrum takes to flinging pebbles across the waters. Thinking to himself as he looked to his feet. Pondering the nearing future. Despite his fury towards the gods, his mind felt haunted with several damning thoughts.

_What of her? She could have been free from here! Dammit!_

_The jar had been all he ever wanted, and because of that, it nearly took her away_

_Do you even know where to_ _look if you tried?_

_Even if I toiled under Zeus, he would promise many things._

_He would not leave her be._

_He would seek her ruin_ _………_

“Am I a fool for closing a door to her,or a fool for just not telling Zeus what he wants?” He asks himself, his sandals digging into the sand. 

_“Very good, necessary questions to ask in your predicament_.”Echoed a voice in Electrum’s ear. 

Blinking for a moment. He looked up from his feet to the horizon. Watching a moment as a dark figure appears like a thin shadow puppet against the light. Gradually, Electrum could distinguish a figure, moreover a womanly figure that sat on the horizon as it were a floor. Their hands each holding a distaff and a spinning spindle. Dark hands reach up to the end of the distaff to pull on the air as if it were clumps of fiber to be spun. 

Electrum bowed his head, “I am honored, Ananke-",holding his hand against his chest, he adds "I hope I am not a horrible host to accompany thee.” 

Pausing from her craft, Ananke replied, " _Do not play humble to me, child of Gaia. I appear to you as you came to me. Coincidentally._ ”

Tossing a rock between his hands in thought, Electrum looked back to the deity on the horizon “You have a need for me then?” he asks

The figure lets her distaff hang as she arranged her knees. Sitting crossed legged before spinning her spindle again. 

_“Am I not allowed in your company? I heard many furious ,frustrated, fretters escape your lips coming to this point. Is my concern not warranted?”_

“My candor not intended to offend, I apologize, my lady.” Electrum bowed his head again.

“Then tell me of Zeus and his want of you?” Ananke asks while tugging at her distaff. “-At the very least the source of your quiet rage.” She adds while waiting Electrum to answer.

Taking in a deep breath, the man replies with renewed anger “He requested my help in finding the jar of chaos! I refused to ignore his crimes against my kind under false pretenses. Such falsehoods were clear to me from the start of the conversation!” Leaning back into his seat before giving out a relenting sigh “-I now feel guilt for having for the second time, sealed further the fate of others whose trust I cannot insure longer.”

Nodding, Ananke responds "I see.”

A moment of silence followed as Electrum threw his fiddling rock to the sea before throwing other stones. For a moment, Ananke lost interest for the man until she heard him sob. 

Electrum looks out to the sea with tears and a hiss through his teeth, “She grows to forget the warmth of the sun, the crisp waters, and bountiful land for which she was born to. Stolen from her in the name of “spoils of war”. What Zeus did not win, he stole. He took from me my father, mate, and home. Yet here I stand, stealing her opportunity of freedom. An opportunity I would have easily paid for her.” He lectured to the busy deity before crying many sorrowful tears.

Watching the man fall to his knees, rubbing his palms into his face like a child. Ananke kept up her spinning before commenting, “Indeed, a hero's filled cup complains itself empty.”

Looking up from his palms, Electrum seethed, “Zeus was no hero, Ananke!”

Turning her face, Ananke looked down at the man to listen, unused to such harsh tones with her name.

“Pampered by the sycophants and fawners who themselves were unwilling to solve their issues with Kronos, so send a mindless toddler to work for them.” Electrum lectured again. Rubbing away his tears to clear his sight.

Still spinning her spindle, Ananke tilts her head with a small laugh,

“ _Strong words for someone as yourself. None the less truthful._ ” She hummed before watching the man return to throwing rocks to the sea.

_“When you speak of She, do you mean your little one?_ ”Ananke asks.

Electrum pauses from his throw, nodding to Ananke in reply “Yes. my daughter, Elektra.”

Holding her chin, Ananke mentions loudly“ _Is that her name_?” 

His eyebrows rose high in surprise to her remark, “Were you unaware her name?” Electrum asked.

Plainly, Ananke answers, “ _Names are only necessary when I am needed to differentiate entities._ ”

Crossing his arms with offense before asking, Electrum huffs “What is your need for my daughter then?” 

“ _Nothing in particularly_.” Ananke said aloud, her fingers fiddling with the clump of matter in her hand, “ _Yet no matter how long I have watched several other creatures cross Gaia’s realm. Your treasuring of her is unique._ ” Ananke remarks. 

Letting go of his stance to crack his neck, Electrum explains “My daughter inspires me a sense of more than the barest effort. Had I thought of her I would have just held my tongue and allowed the weight of whatever yoke Zeus threw upon me.”

“ _You are not wrong in your reproach to the offer, Electrum, rest that doubt aside. This world however, is at an impasse with Zeus. Either the jar is rid of and we might move beyond this, or risk seeing another bout of in-family scuffle for power._ ” Ananke warns as she tugs on her distaff.

Listening to Ananke's dire remark, Electrum felt a deeper, overwhelming sense of dread. Surviving the war between Kronos and his family was tumultuous for everything and everyone involved, the idea of Zeus continuing this path of destruction and his little one walking about in it wake, made him pale.

“-How does one dispose of such an artifact? If indeed it does contain the remains of Chaos.” Looking to Ananke with a plead for her wisdom.

Setting aside her spinning tools, Ananke moves to stand close to the man. Electrum did his best to hide his anxiousness as she approached him. She had no eyes, but yet, somehow he felt that she could see everything. Every breathe, she could hear, every heartbeat she could discern against the noise of the universe. 

“ _What do you know of the jar itself? Firstly._ ”she asks

Electrum shrugged to the question, “I know little of it. I know Kronos just hid it away. Said that it drove him mad, whether it is true or not, isn’t my place to say.”

Humming as she turned on her foot“ _I cannot confirm nor deny that. I can tell you that indeed the jar has the potential for a vast effect on whomever lifts its lid.”_ Ananke said walking back towards her spinning.

“What would happen if Zeus got hold of it? What could it affect that hasn't happened before?” Electrum asked to the back of Ananke.

Turning around, Ananke points the end of her spindle to him, “ _Zeus could control all aspects of this plot of matter. Could sustain dominion with the jar hung from his hip. In a sense, forcing Gaia to retreat from her own creation! Satisfied?.._ ” 

Stepping back a step, Electrum swallowed his dread further into his belly “You are certain he would go that far?” he asks.

“With Zeus, wills and ways match his footpath.” Ananke asserts while spinning. 

Stepping closer to the deity, the man stood contemplating many thoughts. Many of which colluded with his growing desperation. Looking out to the sea again, Electrum thought of his choice of action: To fight, endure, or sacrifice? . To fight would be impossible, he had neither the resources or men as he did before. He and many others were weakened by the effects of the underworld, enduring anymore would erode them further. Then, what to sacrifice. Electrum had little to offer that Ananke would feel inclined or enticed to endeavor. His mind drifted to his daughter, the very question, the thought pained him against speaking. 

“What would you suggest, my lady?" He asked. 

Ananke turned up to face the man. Her dark face pulled apart a tear, tugged at each end into an upward, curve. Forming a grin...


End file.
